1. Field of the Invention
The present patent document relates generally to prescription pill vials and more particularly to a method and system for printing a pharmaceutical label that include indicia for tracking doses, which may be used with pill vials that include an indexing mechanism.
2. Background of the Related Art
Keeping track of doses for prescriptions can be confusing to patients. Although others have described indicators for time intervals. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,791 describes using an indicator on the vial closure to track the number of pills taken. However, the '791 patent does not describe how many doses remain or how many doses have already been taken, which is arguably a more useful measure. Furthermore, the '791 patent is fixed in that if the user is on a non-standard medication regime, the '791 patent is not easily adaptable
Therefore, there is a perceived need in the art for a dosage tracking mechanism for pill vial that is specific to the patient and medication that the patient has been prescribed, yet is also inexpensive and easy to use.